Subjects: CHI, CFG

Creating more child care spaces for families in Ontario

ST. THOMAS, ON, May 13, 2024 /CNW/ - Every child deserves the best start in life. But for young families, including Millennial parents, the costs of child care can add up to a second rent or mortgage payment. This makes it harder to start and support a family, and as a result, parents ? especially moms ? often face impossible choices between their careers and child care fees.

Budget 2024 is about fairness for every generation. And it is why we introduced $10-a-day child care across Canada ? with all provinces and territories already offering, or working toward, $10-a-day child care. This progress, made possible by nearly $40 billion in federal support, is making life more affordable for young families. Now, the participation of women in the workforce has reached record highs. That means more families are bringing home more income and growing our economy, while saving thousands of dollars on child care every year.

We need to keep this work going and that means creating more affordable child care spaces.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced that the Government of Canada is providing Ontario with $201.87 million to create child care spaces and support inclusive child care services across the province, especially in underserved communities. This investment, part of the previously announced $625 million Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund, will help Ontario reach our goal of creating 86,000 new child care spaces by 2026 ? meaning more families in Ontario can access affordable spaces.

It will mean more spaces in rural and remote regions, high-cost and low-income urban neighbourhoods, and communities that face barriers to access, including racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples, official language minority communities, newcomers, as well as parents, caregivers, and children with disabilities. We are working with all other provincial and territorial partners to reach similar funding agreements.

The Prime Minister also highlighted key measures included in Budget 2024 to build more child care spaces and infrastructure, support early childhood educators across the country, and help more families access affordable child care. These include:

• Launching a new Child Care Expansion Loan Program. With up to $1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable grants, public and not-for-profit child care providers will be able to build new spaces and renovate their existing child care centres. This means more resources for child care providers and more affordable child care options for families.
• Offering student loan forgiveness for rural and remote early childhood educators. This will encourage educators to work in smaller communities and help families get the child care they need. With a $48 million investment over four years, Canada Student Loan forgiveness amounts will increase with the amount of time an educator works in a rural or remote area, attracting and retaining the talent, similar to the benefits we're offering rural doctors and nurses.
• Increasing training for early childhood educators. We're investing $10 million over two years to train more early childhood educators, building up the talent needed for the expansion of affordable, high-quality child care.
• Improving child care access for military families. Military service often demands frequent moves and deployments, making quality child care imperative for Canadian Armed Forces members. That is why we're investing $100 million over five years to provide Canadian Armed Forces personnel and their families with better access to child care on bases across Canada.

In just three years, we've made incredible progress in building the Canada-wide early learning and child care system. Across the country, over 750,000 kids are already benefiting from affordable, high-quality child care, with some families saving up to $14,300 per child, per year. Alongside provinces and territories, we have also announced measures to create over 100,000 new spaces, well on our way to reaching our goal of creating 250,000 new spaces by March 2026.

The measures highlighted above are just some of the things that we're doing in Budget 2024 to build a fairer and more inclusive Canada for every generation. We're also building more homes, improving health care, and investing in our economy ? to make sure every Canadian has a fair chance to succeed.

"Affordable child care gives moms and dads the opportunity to build their careers, helps families save money, and gives kids the best start to life. With Budget 2024, we're creating more child care spaces, hiring more early childhood educators, giving them more training, and working with provinces like Ontario to make sure families get the care they deserve. Affordable, quality child care ? that's what fairness looks like."
? The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

"Young families who don't yet have access to affordable child care spaces are paying nearly a second rent or mortgage payment for unregulated child care. This is unfair to today's generation of parents, including Millennial parents, who need and deserve the relief of $10-a-day spaces. With today's new agreement with Ontario to build more affordable spaces, we are helping more families access affordable child care and save thousands of dollars every year."
? The Hon. Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

"Affordable, high-quality child care has provided families with financial relief and is giving thousands of children the best possible start in life. Over 3,000,000 families in Ontario are already benefitting from thousands of dollars in savings in their childcare fees each year. With this new agreement, and the measures laid out in Budget 2024, Ontario has the funding and tools its needs to create spaces and reduce waitlists for parents across the province."
? The Hon. Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

Quick Facts

• The Government of Canada's Budget 2024 was tabled in the House of Commons by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on April 16, 2024.
• As part of Budget 2021, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment of more than $27 billion over five years to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system with provinces and territories.
• As part of the Canada?Ontario Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, the Government of Canada is investing more than $10.2 billion through 2025-2026 to help improve early learning and child care for children and their families in Ontario.
• Combined with investments since Budget 2021, including in Indigenous early learning and child care, the federal government is providing nearly $40 billion over five years for early learning and child care.
  • Investments in child care benefit all Canadians. Studies show that for every dollar invested in early childhood education, the broader economy receives between $1.50 and $2.80 in return.
  • In 2023, Canada saw a record 79.7 per cent labour force participation rate for core-aged mothers with children under age six.

• To date, eight provinces and territories are delivering regulated child care for an average of $10-a-day or less, including Quebec and the Yukon, which achieved this prior to the Canada-wide early learning and child care system. In all other provinces and territories, fees for regulated child care have been reduced by at least 50 per cent on average. Provinces and territories are working toward lowering fees for regulated child care to $10-a-day on average by March 2026.
  • Canada-wide early learning and child care is saving families, per child, up to $13,700 a year in Alberta, $8,500 in Ontario, $6,900 in Saskatchewan, $6,600 in British Columbia, $6,300 in Newfoundland and Labrador, $6,000 in Nova Scotia, $4,170 in Prince Edward Island, $3,600 in New Brunswick, $2,610 in Manitoba, $7,300 in the Yukon, $9,120 in the Northwest Territories (effective April 1, 2024), and $14,300 in Nunavut.

• As part of the Canada-wide early learning and child care system, the Government of Canada is working with provinces and territories to create 250,000 new child care spaces across the country by March 2026 to increase access to affordable child care options for families, no matter where they live.
  • To support this goal, the federal government previously announced the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. The Fund provides an additional $625 million to provinces and territories to support infrastructure projects for not-for-profit child care spaces in underserved communities, such as rural and remote regions, high-cost and low-income urban neighbourhoods, and communities that face barriers to access, including racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples, official language minority communities, newcomers, as well as parents, caregivers, and children with disabilities.

• To give every child the best start in life, the federal government is also:
  • Giving families more money through the Canada Child Benefit to help with the costs of raising their children and make a real difference in the lives of children in Canada. The Canada Child Benefit, which can provide up to $7,437 per child per year, is indexed annually to keep up with the cost of living and has helped lift half a million children out of poverty since its launch in 2016.
  • Improving access to dental health care for children under the age of 12 through the Canada Dental Benefit, and soon for children under 18 with the Canadian Dental Care Plan, because no one should have to choose between taking care of their kids' teeth and putting food on the table.
  • Creating a National School Food Program to help ensure every child has the best start in life, with the food they need to learn and grow, no matter their circumstances.
  • Helping students acquire coding skills by advancing the next phase of CanCode, with an investment of $39.2 million. CanCode has helped over 4.5 million students?from kindergarten through grade 12?to develop coding and digital skills, priming kids for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
  • Supporting after-school learning with an investment of $67.5 million to help all Canadian students reach their full potential. After-school learning and supports play an important role in helping students succeed in their academic pursuits, especially for at-risk students.

Associated Links

• Fairness for Every Generation
• Budget 2024: Fairness for Every Generation
• More $10-a-day child care spaces 
• Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada's Defence
• Toward $10-a-day: Early Learning and Child Care

This document is also available at https://pm.gc.ca

SOURCE Prime Minister's Office

News published on 13 may 2024 at 12:15 and distributed by: